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Yes, two non-political posts in one day. What is this world coming to? Anyway, this was the original post I had in mind today except Google's demo targeting announcement preempted this post. OK, so by now you've heard if you are into SecondLife that Linden Labs has a ban on any interest or any direct return on an investment unless banks are licensed by a real-world government. Of course this was no surprise to me because there were no guarantees on your deposits which means any idiot who put their Lindens in these "banks" were surely guaranteed to lose their deposits. Here's the official Linden Labs release.

Not trying to state the obvious, but banks give you interest on your money and then turn around and invest your money hoping to get better returns on the money they are giving you. Real banks need to keep some reserve and often invest in safer investments like homes and real estate. Remember that bank run scene from It's A Wonderful Life when George Bailey tells the people looking for their money that their money is in their neighbor's homes? Here's a 21 second clip to remind you!! (FYI for your cynical folks yes the real estate market has crashed making these safe investments go bad, but that's because these banks and investment banks got greedy and "forgot" how to make safe loans and lowered or even ignored credit standards).

What were these SL banks investing in? SL real estate? Gambling? SL stores? Those don't sound like safe investments to me. That's why I never believed their promises of returns and I just sat on my Lindens.

However, I think there is a huge play for big international, real world banks in SecondLife and of course these banks are not banned. I wrote this back about a year ago in the post called First Life Companies I'd Like to See in Second Life. For little marketing costs (people, programmers, and a low interest rate like 0.5%) a bank like Bank of America could setup shop and take deposits. They could "roll" these deposits in like any other local bank or just let it sit there enjoying free marketing and PR from Second Life citizens. By the way I did see a Bank of America listing that said "hold for sponsorship"; it could be nothing or it could be an agency holding it for them.

A real life bank setting up shop in SL would be a great way to give back to the Second Life community and start to understand virtual worlds. Someone should take the plunge.

A very good article in yesterday's Politico called Pols get second change to connect online and it just wasn't because I was quoted towards the end of it. The article gives a pretty good over view of what has been done in SL to date when it comes to politicians and also provides some input from experts on how to use or not use SL. My quote towards the end I think really summarizes my feelings towards politics in Second Life

Still, technology experts expect more presidential candidates to appear
as the 2008 election heats up. Eric Frenchman has been on Second Life
for 18 months, trying to organize the Republican base for some of his
clients.

Chief Internet strategist with the marketing firm Connell Donatelli,
Frenchman is also in charge of online advertising for GOP presidential
candidate John McCain, although he wouldn’t say whether the senator
from Arizona plans to appear in the virtual world.

“We haven’t seen too many Republicans. But I think once we have a party
nominee, you might see somebody in there,” Frenchman said.

I am spending more of my own time reaching out to the Republican group in Second Life and as mentioned earlier in the article it really is like the Wild West. I have no idea what tactics can work and I'm especially concerned about the reach especially when you try and target voters in a state. For now, I'm trying to use Second Life as another marketing channel to see if we can push GOTV, register to vote, and perhaps online activism for key issues. Again, this is just in my spare time and more to see if we can find some lever to pull or to see if something can actually get started in the virtual world.

Personally, I'd like to see more events like the Newt Gingrich one because they are far more informative and far more interactive than just a boring conference call or instant message exchange. There were protesters, offline media buzz, a few glitches, and of course a little action. Besides reaching out to voters there is the potential for a little in-world and off-world buzz.

As I said towards then end, I think you'll see more activity when it comes to a general election contest than in the primaries. Right now, candidates are focusing on getting the numbers they need to the polls in each of the states and unfortunately when you break up Second Life's user base by state the numbers don't pan out. However, nationally you could have some buzz and also generate some activism around the right issues.

Newt Gingrich just announced a Second Life event on September 27th over at the SL Capitol and this coincides with the Solutions Event also occurring that day. It will be awesome and a great use of Second Life instead of the same old tired "let's build an island that nobody comes to" event.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

****Washington Post picks up on the story and nails it exactly as to the significance of the event occurring on the steps of the Second Life Capitol. See this post.

Starwood Hotels closing up its virtual hotel (my guess is for no traffic).

Best Buy's Geek Squad Island was empty (not surprising)

Dell Island was deserted

Sun Microsystem's Island was blank

American Apparel's store closed up shop

Of course casinos, brothels, and strip clubs were packed

What does all this mean? Well a bunch of these companies just jumped right in and basically put up some virtual billboards, spent some money, and found out what a lot of us SL citizens already know. If you don't make products that enhance the experience or if you don't build a SL destination then guess what marketers - nobody cares. Seriously, the only benefit that some of these companies received was free PR, but that time is over. Let's take a look at the examples from the article from a SL citizen:

Starwood Hotel - why would I go there unless there was a major SL event or party being held? I wouldn't. Sure you could see what a room looked like, but couldn't you do that already?

Geek Squad - oh so I have a problem with my PC and need the Geek Squad? Then how am I there now? Seriously, the Geek Squad guys can help but they are geared towards helping less techie folks right? I'm sure they are found in abundance in SL...

Dell - you right now get better 3D rendering of what their PCs look like on their own website

The only surprising company mentioned that closed up is American Apparel because as I've pointed out before there is a serious lack of decent men's clothing in SL. Sadly though I never found them when searching for clothing in SL, so perhaps that's where their problem started in the first place.

I get asked often enough from clients and business friends about marketing in SL. You know what I tell them:

Don't expect to generate a ton of real life traffic or sales from a SL store front

If you make a destination or build a product that enhances the community, that should translate into brand awareness and perhaps some earned media in First Life

If you can't build a product, make a destination, or develop a 3D execution of your brand you are wasting your time. So it isn't surprising that a lot of these companies closed up their SL shop. Marketing in Second Life involves using your imagination.

A study that comScore released on Friday may have killed any chance of using Second Life in the short term for US direct response companies as well as serious political advertising opportunities. Simply stated, the following chart found in the study showed that just 16% of Second Life's active user base were actually located in the United States (in real life) and as the study pointed out, the active user base was made up of 15+ year olds so clearly a % of people in the study are not old enough to vote. Now these numbers are a little on the pessimistic side because as Reuters points out, Linden Labs statistics show that the active user base that was located in the US was a whopping 26.8% for March.

From a US political perspective the numbers really start to get depressing. Using the
comScore chart shows that 207,000 active were in the US and giving them the benefit of the doubt, lets assume that all 207K are 18+ (I know that is generous). Using historical voting trends from the 2004 election and again being generous by including all age demos (older people are more likely to vote and less likely to be on Second Life), 72% of all 18+ Americans are registered and of the registered voters, 89% voted. That means the 207K US SL numbers now looks like 132,646 votes that are up for grabs. WOOT. Seriously, that's depressing. I'd guess it would have to increase 100 times in US active users before anyone takes it seriously.

OK, so does this mean I'm so down on it that it changes my point of view? Well, no not at all. I've been pretty consistent with the viewpoint that Second Life needs, well people for politics. If you think you are just going to drop in a SL campaign HQ you will be disappointed. Any marketer, political or private sector, that is looking for big sales and big numbers will find that if you don't view SL as a unique environment and end up using the same old marketing techniques, it will not pan out for you. You need to live in SL for a while and learn to interact with it and see what makes it tick.

You see, Second Life is more than just some gimmick. It is a 3D world where you can be anyone or anything at any time or anywhere. You are not constrained by your physical environment and the only constraints you do have are your own imagination and how much time you can devote to it.

SL was built by residents and to ignore all of the time and hard work that went into it is foolish. If you just slap up a location that doesn't add to the world it is a 3D slap in the face to those early pioneers. Sure you can meet people, stream video, make presentations, and that's a fine use of it, but to get something out of it for your marketing purposes you need to make contributions to the world. Try making a product, building a destination the people want to visit, or hiring residents to work your events. Seriously, the only reason people will visit your campaign booth is for the coolness factor or the odd chance that they meet Mr. or Ms. Presidential candidate.

Yes, I'm still bullish on Second Life especially if you add to the community by making products that residents can use or by building destinations that they want to visit. Putting up a virtual store or HQ will only end up disappointing you with the lack of sales or the lack of plain old foot traffic - at least in the near future.

Let me be blunt to start (as if I'm never blunt). I am not a huge fan of NASCAR but if nothing else is on and I need something on the TV, I'll leave a race on or two. Compared with Yankees, Giants, heck even golf or tennis, NASCAR isn't even close and I have a feeling that I'm not that different from other metro New York sports fans. However, I did find commentary from ESPN Radio's Colin Cowherd very interesting when he spoke at length about a few fans throwing bottles and cans at Jeff Gordon after he won Talladega. Here's my key takeaways from Colin's piece this morning and why I think wannabe Second Life marketers should pay attention to Jeff Gordon's fan reaction.....

NASCAR wants to embrace the big northern markets to get after the advertising and sponsorship opportunities

At the same time, their base of fans who helped drive up NASCAR's popularity have a different demographic than NASCAR's expansion markets

Drivers like Gordon don't want to hang out at Walmart or the Piggly Wiggly meeting the current fan base and like other famous athletes have a different ideas how to spend their time and which sponsors they want to invest in.

So what you have is a great fan base that is powering NASCAR to greater popularity.
These fans want to keep NASCAR the way it was(is) and don't want to embrace that changes that NASCAR needs to capitalize on an expanded audience and therefore more advertising opportunities. This struck me as a metaphor for the tug of war that Second Life is having with the core citizens and advertisers. It also didn't hurt that GigaOM had a nice write up on an analysis by Global Market Insite called Does Virtual World Advertising Work?

So what's a marketer supposed to do in Second Life and how can they make sure that SLers don't pelt their islands with virtual beer cans? Well this is what I tell any potential client or advertiser when they ask me about advertising in Second Life. And, by they way, this is after I shock them by telling them I'm on Second Life multiple times per week.

Spend months interacting with SL. Hold conferences and meet other people. Try on different avatars and build out your base body so you don't look and act like someone who just left Help Island

Putting up a Second Life storefront will disappoint unless you are selling skins, clothing, or porn

Find a way to embrace the SL builders by contributing to the world with something more than just a road sign. People have put their time and energy into building out Second Life so to ignore the roots and what went into it is a virtual slap in the face. So, instead of recycling the same old tired offline ad campaigns, try building a product or service that avatars can use. How about create a virtual destination that avatars want to visit.

Besides creating a destination that gives Avatar's something to do, how about figuring out a way to pay avatars for working at your location? SLers love to make linden dollars

Finally, how about renting out space to SLers or hosting parties at your location. Basically, figure out a way to use Second Life to be your virtual location or event where you can meet potential customers.

I know you must think that comparing NASCAR's growing pains with Second Life might be a stretch, but when you look a little closer, they really are similar tugs of war between scaling their products to grow the audience, getting more advertising dollars, all without upsetting the fans that made the product what it is today.

On my drive home the other night from Seder I got to thinking about the types of first life companies and products I'd like to see in Second Life. Seems like I had a lot of time on my hands, right? Well, have you ever tried driving back to NJ from Long Island on a Jewish Holiday while your entire family was asleep in the car? If you have, then you know that plenty of ideas will jump into your head.

One of the things that disappoint me when it comes to first life companies jumping into SL is that they just view it as an extension of their web presence or as a place where they have to be before it becomes big. You know what I've seen when this happens? No traffic, no reason to visit, and of course a place that doesn't take advantage of a place where anyone can live a fantasy, be what they want to be, or a have real-time conversations instead of boring conference calls. Anyway, thanks to questions from my friend Jim over the weekend, here's a list of first life companies and their project that I'd like to see in Second Life.

Following up on Coldwell Banker's launch, I'd like to see Bank of America either buy one of the SL banks or start up their own. I have about L$6,000 sitting in my account and I'd like to earn a little interest, but one of the things I learned in the official guide to SL is buyer beware and you might lose your money. A real life bank with a nice branding budget can make a lot of inroads in SL.

GQ - yes the men's magazine. What I'd like to see is GQ with a men's store in SL for hair, skins, clothing, animations, etc - pretty much anything for men in SL because if you've ever tried to outfit yourself you are limited to urban, boring, or gangster looks. And, try and find some decent hair if you are a man and you spend all of your time searching, searching, and searching.

Speaking of search, I think Yahoo should figure out a way to power the search in SL and make improvements to it. The search functionality is cumbersome at best and forget about searching on 3 term words. Plus, the business owners of the retail locations can include anything they want in a descriptions leading to a lot of wasted visits. So, besides revamping the search, I'd like to be able to have users tag the results with what they've found there and how accurate the search was.

University of Phoenix - yes that pop-under, button placements, network buying online teaching institute. SL would be a great place for teaching classes and as opposed to boring screens, you can have an actual class, with people in the class room raising their hand, and streaming video of a lecture.

Donald Trump - no I'm not insane. Think about what he can bring to SL in the way of products. First, Starwood has a hotel in SL and it is a great idea. You know why? Because getting a feel for a room you are going to book is difficult in a flat environment. How big is the room? Can you move around in it? How about the view? SL is perfect for this type of booking. Second, Trump can bring an instant credibility to gambling houses in SL which can best be described as buyer beware. A first life Casino owner can legitimize SL Casinos and at the same time provide a lot of branding opportunities for them.

Those are just my 5 favorite ideas. I thought of many more on my boring trip back from Long Island and of course have other ideas that I've presented to clients which I can't print here. Needless to say, just putting up a Second Life office will disappoint the marketer and the community. Building places and products that enhance the SL experience will pay big dividends over the long term.

As announced over in Second Life Insider, Coldwell Banker has not only launched a presence in SL but is also selling and renting its own tracks of land. I really like this move and wish more companies as well as political campaigns follow the lead of many companies that either embrace the way SL works or create destinations that keeps people coming back. If you plan on just opening up a place to peddle your RL products, SL is not the place for you. You already have places which are web pages.

RL companies that embrace how SL operates by creating SL products (ex - real estate, banking, cars), places that encourage people to visit often like NOAA, takes advantage of showcasing products that only a 3D environment can deliver or virtual communications really understand how this 3D world works. Companies and political campaigns that just develop a SL location just for the sake of being cool, getting buzz, or generating traffic are going to be disappointed in the long run.

You need to create SL products or SL destinations to keep residents interested. I'm glad the folks at Coldwell Banker did their homework and embraced how SL really works. Well done.

So, I needed some downtime today from one of my more complicated projects, so
I logged on to Second Life and decided to take a tour when it came to Presidential candidates. I was curious to see what was happening so I searched on the big three. My first stop was what I consider the classic SL retail establishment - a place where a smart entrepreneur recognized an opportunity and started selling candidate yard signs and t-shirts. The top three on the list as you can see from the screen shot, were Clinton, Obama, and Ron Paul (?). Of course, I didn't buy a sign or a t-shirt because I have my own, so then it was off to a Hillary Clinton SL destination under construction.

The location which is being built by Second Life resident King Zuhal a UK resident in his first life is a definite upgrade from all other SL unofficial/official HQs. It includes a large conference room including a video screen, electoral map of the US, a platform for SL town halls, plenty of pictures, and a really clean, professional look. I
asked King a few questions about the project.

PMF: Are you officially connected with the campaign? King: Not yet, we are contacting the RL HQ

PMF: I like the design, it is much better than other executions. King: Obama's is impressive, but hey this is a long campaign, we just want to have some fun and some good debate in SL

PMF: Are you concerned with some bad press from other unofficial HQs? King: Hey, this is SL, we should not be afraid and embrace it. I love fireworks sometimes.

The chat was very informative and here's my take on it as a SL resident and somebody, if you've read my history of posts, has a completely different opinion on SL; one that is very upbeat. A) These are again the classic SL entrepreneur building something and hoping to cash in with a very professional design B) SL residents are not aware of how the RL political world is viewing SL locations and when a location is attacked, while it might be fun for residents, it is not something that a campaign wants to be associated with C) Campaigns are going to be dragged into SL whether they want to be or not, because just like a website or blog, anyone can build something.

While this design is closer to what a professional might develop, I still don't think it is a destination that will keep residents coming back. As a potential official HQ it has all the amenities you could ask for, whether a campaign uses it or not, that's a different story. At least residents are stepping up to the plate now and starting to build locations that showcase what a 3D environment can deliver.

I get asked this a lot when someone first talks with me about Second Life - What do I do in Second Life? In fact based on the traffic I've been seeing on my website, a lot of people are looking for this information too. Needless to say, I am not what you would describe as an expert, but just a humble guide who is figuring it out for himself. Right now my biggest help right now is the official guide to second life. So here's what I've been up to lately in SL.

I ditched my first land that I bought a few months back by selling it to a neighbor for L$6,000 turning almost a 12x profit. I decided that the area didn't suit me anymore.

So, I turned around a bought a super expensive piece of land on the ocean complete with a house and area in the back with trees. Why did I buy it? Well, that kind of property at the jersey shore is way above my weekly allowance and the price of land is going up.

Then I went off and decorated it by buying this nice lounge chair, a whirlpool, wind surfer, raft, swimming animations, seagulls, waves, and of course ocean sound. I'd describe this place now as my virtual fish tank because it calms me down by having me think of real life times at the shore.

Now that I went shopping, what do you do next? Simple, stop #1 is New Citizens Plaza in Kuula (54,175,29). Why? Helpful people, free stuff like clothes, animations, sounds, textures, pretty much anything you can think of. I wanted some good hair and I was directed by one of the helpful people working there to a yard sale and picked up the hairdo you see now.

Next up I visited NOAA's Second Life location where I rode in a plane through a hurricane and went up with a weather balloon.

So, that's what I've been up to lately. I've also been trying to figure out how to design my own clothes and with help from a very talented designer, I think I might make some progress. One thing you'll find in Second Life is that men's clothes selections are pathetic at best...Anyway, stay tuned for more on SL.

So, I picked up the Official Guide to Second Life in Barnes&Noble the other day and I highly recommend it. I like the tips and the tours, plus I can catch up on the history of Second Life. I'm even more impressed now than I was when I bought the book. I plan on taking the Chapter 3 tour any minute now. In the meantime between the Guide and my own personal experience, I've learned the following which should help any marketer if you consider an SL location.

There is no such thing as unofficial location; either you are in all the way or you disavow it

If it is official, never, ever build anything on public land; drop some dollars down and build your own island

Make sure people can not run scripts or create anything in your location without your permission

Creating your island has the added benefit of not having any bad neighbors

Don't just create a place for people to meet and chat - try creating something that will cause them to want to return.

Recently Linden Labs shut off first land acquisitions and at first I was upset, but now I don't mind so much. Sure I sold my First Land for L$6,000 turning a nice profit from the L$512 I paid for it, but the area was completely cheezy and didn't really enhance my experience. Now I have a place on the beach with sea gulls, waves, ocean sounds, and a wind-surfer. Believe it or not, I find it relaxing, about the equivalent of watching a fish tank.

If you ever considered a SL account or location, I highly recommend the book. If you are planning on building a corporate place remember this important point - build a destination that entertains people so that they return often. Building a spot that avatars show up once in a while or requires them to stay for Linden dollars is a waste - you need to build places that people want to show up and interact with.

Very funny conversation between my son and a good friend's child a few week's back when we went over for dinner. Out of the mouth of babes (names withheld because well, you can't be too sure).

MySon: Hey Friend, what are you doing?

Friend: Playing Second Life

MySon: What's Second Life

Friend: A game. Check out this motorcycle.

MySon: Wow. What are you doing?

Friend: Driving my motorcycle. Look it is fun.

MySon: Where are you going?

Friend: Around. I'm driving around?

MySon: But, where are you going?

Friend: Around Second Life. See?

MySon: Yes, where are you going?

Friend: Around

MySon: Let's go play (in real life)

Friend: But, I am. Look I'm driving a motorcycle.

MySon: Where are you going?

I exaggerated a little, but that is pretty much how the story went. This only lasted about a minute and they went off and played Star Wars with some lightsabers, but it illustrated through the eyes of a little one that you need to be going somewhere in Second Life. Otherwise, you just end up driving around in circles.

My biggest issue with SL is that it needs destinations, events, and meeting places and that you need to be notified of these. Yes you can have friends in SL and socialize, but for it to attract more of the internet at large, you need to make it a destination hub. I am really excited of the possibilities because of the 3-D imagery, look, feel, sound, and textures available, I just wish there were more destinations other than porn and gambling. Where are you going?

There are quite a number of posts out there on Second Life and politics and a really nice write up called Avatar Politics by Nancy Scola who worked with former Virginia Governor Mark Warner. For you Second Lifers it is nothing earth shattering and talks a lot about opinions on political advertising in Second Life; it does provide a nice primer for political marketing folks. My only issue with using Second Life for political advertising is that you need umm, people to communicate with.

Yes. People who sometimes translate into voters. You remember them right? Well, according to Second Life, right now as I write this there are a total 2,673,317 residents (accounts), 855,063 who logged in at least once in the past 60 days, and 20,507 online right now. There were over 122 million votes cast in the 2004 election and President Bush won it 62 million to 59 million. Can you see the problem math majors? Not enough volume, plus those Second Life numbers are worldwide and not US specific.

Second Life can not bridge real world via virtual meetings. Would you rather shake a candidate's hand in real life or have a screen shot next to their Avatar? How about a speech - in person or via a conference call? To me that is the difference between seeing Bruce Springsteen live in the pit or listening to scratchy bootlegs that a friend burned for you on a dirty disc. You know why Second Life avatars are easier to approach? Because they are NOT REAL PEOPLE.

Now, if you think this post is meant to put down Second Life or Nancy's white paper, it is not. I'm just trying to put it into perspective for 2007/2008. There are many things you can use Second Life for, but until the masses join in, it is just a playground for the young, techie audience. Don't believe me, try asking people outside of this demographic if they a) have heard of Second Life b) if they even visited their website. Then let me know what you think because these people will be voting in 1-2 years.

2008 will be won using online advertising and micro-targeting strategies. Campaigns will get a lot more out of streaming commercials, pre-roll video, and targeted buys online then they will with Second Life. The masses are moving that way now for news and information and continued adoption of broadband will only fuel that fire. For now, Second Life in the political world should be something to experiment with if you can squeeze out some time. While your competitors spend a lot of time wandering around looking for voters waiting for their screen to rez, you'll be busy winning an election because you pushed 10% of your offline advertising budget online.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

BTW - sorry about the infrequent posts. I've been in DC for meetings with Connell Donatelli, but will be back home tomorrow.

So, the big event went off last week when Rep. George Miller showed up in the virtual Capitol Hill in Second Life, but I couldn't get an invite. Mind you, I did find out late, but to me it looked like too good of a secret. Why do I say that? I read all the usual (Republican) political blogs and I couldn't find any that attended and when I did see the press release via Reuters and emailed for a seat (like it says in the release) I received no reply. I wanted to attend and would have participated in the conversation if I could have been there. From the looks of the screen shots, I'd say there was still room available, but that might not be a fair comment because I can't tell from the photos what another person would have done to the load and rezzing speed.

Unfortunately, from what I can tell that was posted, it looked pretty boring
and like a lot of things in Second Life these days over-hyped. This was the hype written in the press release: Clear Ink and Sun Microsystems co-sponsor first Congressional presence
in a virtual world, extending access and discussion for nearly 1
million “residents” of Second Life. I was one of the million residents and tried to get access but couldn't. Am I a little upset. Yes, but don't brag about extending access during the first Congressional presence and don't say email us for an invite if you don't intend to provide them. And, try to update the wiki with timely information because that was what it was there for.

I am a fan of Second Life, but for me from what I can tell via the screen shots and Rocketboom video, it was a boring conference call and what the world doesn't need is another conference call. Sure, you can have a virtual seat, but like a few people in the front row you can fall asleep when it isn't interactive. Second Life is unique when you can demonstrate your own creativity and have fun doing it at the same time. And, if you are a marketer, having a 3-D demonstration of your product is excellent. Problems are with a conference call like this, is that it seemed too controlled and the product is much better in RL.

While I do think that politicians and all new marketers should test out new forms of media and communications, it is increasingly important in politics to make sure that both sides get a chance to participate. Let's not get too excited over this toe dipped into the political water. There just isn't enough critical mass on Second Life right now to make it a viable political forum. We need average Americans participating in virtual chats like this for it to be democratic and right now the average America is not paying attention - like the person in the purple shirt falling asleep during the Congressman's conference call.

I saw this Reuters Post today called Congressional Democrat's Agenda Gets Second Life Stage and I thought it was very interesting. Interesting because they beat me to the punch for building this out and also to see if anyone shows up. And, by anyone I mean more than 15 people. I think the idea is wonderful and I hope people participate, especially Americans. However, one of the things I've been noticing on Second Life as of late is the lack of a minyan of visitors on any RW business spot. For example there are 20,701 people online as I write this post and I wonder how many of them will actually show up to participate and drag themselves away from gambling and porn locations.

I'll be there to check it out and I hope you are there too especially if you have Second Life. Of course, I'll probably be the only Republican there, so if the turn out is what I expect, maybe I'll get a question or two in.

I've been having a lot of fun lately with Second Life. The only person I couldn't convince that it is worth spending any time on was my brother in-law who is a big time coder and CTO. Recently, my favorite conversation was with my friend Bart S. who did see the value in having a 3D showroom, but didn't think enough of main stream would participate and he's probably right over the short term. However, there are a ton of people making money in Second Life as this Reuters article points out called Second Life development shops pull in big business.

The development shops that a big company can pay to design an island, shop, or building are cashing in big time. And, I think it is well deserved because I've tried constructing items in Second Life and it is a pain. Sure, I can make a brick wall, but playing around with scripting and coding is way past the amount of time I can afford. That's why I'm trying to enlist my friend Chip B. to look around and see how we can make some cash. According to the article, the developers were planning on averaging $80K in revenues for the 4Q with a median of $18K. Even if that is inflated (self-reported survey data always is), that is still some serious cash that should only grow.

Someone is making money in Second Life. Right now, you can exchange L$272 for US$1 and in the last 24 hours over $650K was spent in Second Life. Me, I'm just looking to set up shop and have some of my clients over for a meeting. Just to get their feet wet in social marketing, that is until Chip and I can figure out something.

Ok, so I bought some land in Second Life and dropped one of those free homes on the land. However, the Tubular model that I picked up on Help Island doesn't suit me and I wouldn't want to entertain any clients in it. So, I started shopping and it wasn't as smooth as I thought it might be, but I found a great home/office and placed it in the clouds. However, before I show off my new digs, I thought you'd like to see the process I went through to find it.

First I hit the popular places link in search, but neglected to uncheck the box that said include mature content. What I found was the screen shot to the right of mostly gambling and gentlemen clubs. Unchecking the box was a little more useful because the clubs were replaced with newbie places.

I warped to New Citizens Incorporated via the non-mature popular places link and it is worth its weight in Prims. There was a great screen in the beginning that offered tips on buying land and fixing the lag. Yes, I wrote fixing the lag in Second Life. NCI is definitely a must-visit for newbies.

Ok, so now I hit the classifieds link and searched for homes and had a huge list to go through. So, I just started visiting places to see what they had to offer. I stayed away from places with a long lag because there was so many to visit I had to eliminate them somehow.

While visiting a few places I realized that there are three variables you need to be worried about when it comes to buying a home: the shape of your plot, the size of land, and how many Prims you can hold. I have 512 sq. m, 117 Prims, and the dimensions are rectangle so I wanted the door on the short side. Plus, then you have to worry about the cost so choose wisely. It is buying beware with no refunds.

The Prims became an important issue for me because I wanted a low Prim but well designed home. Think of Prims as K-size on the Second Life server.

After visiting a ton of places, I settled on a home found in Sky Dreams (Federal 182, 209,31). The prims were light, I got a fireplace and a hot tub, plus I could modify the home. Modification was another key so I can put up walls and change the appearance. The home cost me L$600.

Now that I found my home, I needed to place it on my land, but I ran into an issue there. First, my "neighbor" put up an ugly stone wall up and then the rest of the area around me has other unsightly buildings. So, what's an Avatar to do? Take to the sky.

That's right my Sky Dreams home is build for being up in the sky so I change my Z coordinate and put it up at the cloud layer. One other tip I learned when you buy land is, you also own the air space above your land up to 768m. Now I have a professional home in the sky....

Sure, it may not be friendly being up in the sky, but I always have a good view and could hold some meetings there. Now all I need is some conference equipment and some furniture.

I know some of you think I am crazy, but I can see a need especially for virtual meetings and presentations. With broadband access in the home and a greater use of social networking, I can see SecondLife becoming important in the B2B world especially for work at homes and telecommuters. I put a link to teleport to my office under my favorite links section on the right margin. Of course, you need to have SL to visit...

As you can see from my one lousy link from yesterday, I've been looking around at buying land in SecondLife. I finally made the plunge into upgrading my service from just basic so I can get more Linden $$$ per week and own land.

What made me change my mind? It certainly wasn't the speedy rendering of the graphics which sometimes takes as long as steeping a cup of tea. Was it all of the new marketing ventures like Crayon that launched? Nope. It was this article from a professor (I forgot to tag the url) who thought SecondLife would be a good place to teach a class. Yes. That simple.

One of the biggest challenges I've had to overcome working from my home office is whether I'm working or not. Am I working hard or hardly working? Believe it or not, I work harder from home because I have little distractions and when I have a distraction it is either my wife, kids, or my cat. I don't take 15 minute breaks to get a cup of coffee or hide out down by my friend Craig's cube in Compliance to avoid people.

Now if I had an office in SecondLife where I can meet people or people can drop by and actually see me at a desk they'll know I'm either working or I paid my wife to sit at my RL desk and chat away. Also, meetings could be easier sitting around a table. We can look at a presentation, pass around notes - heck if you bundled it with real chatting and video capabilities then everyone would feel like they are participating. Plus, the other upside would be people could tell when you are late or leaving early.

So, I went off and grabbed some First Land. It took me a few days, but I got this swell piece of property for L$512 and then I dropped a free house on it. Sure it is nothing right now and maybe I don't even keep it, but I bought some property. I did learn a few things quickly 1) Set your newly acquired land so that other people can't build anything on it. I had to delete this one jerk's step from my land 2) Buy your First Land, ummm first otherwise you don't get the special deal 3) Don't sell it to the first person who offers to buy it from you. Just like RL, these people know the true value 4) Location, Location, Location - I spent about an hour picking through what was offered to get this spot on a cliff.

My next venture out in SecondLife is to look for something to buy and perhaps change my lame house around. Yes, I'm too busy to play around with the object designer, so I'll buy what I need. I stopped by a NYC Chef's business because he had recipes for sale; unfortunately, they were a little expensive in Linden $.

Very fun article in Friday's Wall Street Journal on real life fashion designers using SecondLife to put new clothing designs out and sell these virtual fashions for Linden dollars. The article called Now, Virtual Fashion also has a link to see some runway samples and I can't wait to hear what my wife, the queen of fashion in our family/friends circle thinks.

As I wrote earlier in my post No Second Chance in SecondLife, SecondLife is full of examples of people designing games, building, clothes, anything that your Sim heart can desire and that's what makes it great. It provides alot of fun and social activity, but my two biggest issues are the graphics (very slow rendering) and the frequent lagging. That's why I spend most of my virtual time on World of Warcraft where the graphics are amazing and the lagging doesn't happen quite as often. Literally trying to play a game of Slingo takes extra concentration when the graphics don't render correctly.

Don't believe me? Then check out the full length screen shot just taken from a Slingo game. Can you even see what's on the screen or the letters on the score board? The clothing in the links above look great, because well if you give the screen enough time it will render an image.

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